I recently picked up the noted lens (brand new from store two weeks ago) and haven't had a zoom lens for years so don't know if this is an issue or is now common to new zooms. The two Zeiss prime lens' I have don't exhibit this issue.

In manual focus, I am able to rotate the focus ring well past the infinity end as well as the close focus end. The focus action is smooth and does not seem to change from within the focus range to beyond. It feels like there is a detent like "click" at either end of the range (where in other lenses, the rotation would stop) but it is so subtle that, initially, I rotated past the detents without realizing it. The only reason I realized what was happening was the image went out of focus at the infinity end, but came back into focus when I returned the rotation back past the detent. Not sure how far I can rotate, but went at least a half rotation and if this is not supposed to happen, I don't want to push it.

Read the manual and it mentions nothing about this and also could find nothing by searching the net.

I've had older zoom lenses, and primes, in the past and have never experienced this before. Is this normal or is the lens faulty??

That is normal in Nikon AF-S lenses. The focusing ring has something like a "clutch" mechanism, so it won't lock when you reach the end of the scaleAnother benefit is that you can adjust focus with the focusing ring even on AF mode